Poll Says 8 Percent of Russians Think Their Team Can Win 2010 World Cup

Come on Russia, where’s your national pride?  Only eight percent of you think your nation’s team has a shot at winning the 2010 World Cup?  How are they supposed to win when they barely have any support?  Oh wait, maybe they aren’t going to win because they aren’t in the tournament and never were.  Apparently, that’s not enough to stop eight percent of the people who participated in a poll from thinking their boys have a chance to take home the trophy.

A survey conducted by Russia’s Levada Centre asked 1,600 Russian adults in 130 different cities who they thought the tourney favorite was and the results found that eight percent of Russians believe Russia can win the 2010 World Cup even though they never qualified.  When Russia was defeated by Slovenia in the qualifying stage before the Cup, Russians were stunned and disappointed.  Either the eight percent who said Russia could win it all have no interest in soccer, or they’ve blacked out the devastating loss they suffered a while back and still believe Russia is in the tournament.  The same results would probably show if they did this type of survey in a lot of other countries whose teams didn’t qualify for the World Cup, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the funniest news I’ve heard all day.

Sources:
Absent Russia will win World Cup says 8 percent of nation [Yahoo! News]
Russian World Cup fans redefine the word optimism [Out of Bounds]